Anti-Racism & Equality: Our Stance

1. Keep taking a hard look at our industry.

As a small business, we can still help our industry take a hard look at itself.

Everyone deserves a sustainable future, but as an industry (of which I’m a part), there’s a history we’ve conveniently forgotten, and inequalities we continue to ignore.

Here is a part of that hard look:

• Our field is predominately white, from print to loggers to manufacturers. You’d never know that African-Americans have played a critical role in the story of conservation and the forestry industry.
• Our industry is also predominantly male. As of 2018, 95.2% of conservation scientists and foresters were white and nearly 79% were male. In 2017, Melody Starya Mobley, who was the first black woman to become a forester in 1977, reached out to the Forest Service to find out how many black women foresters they employed. There were six.
• In spite of the efforts of so many great organizations who fight for environmental accountability, environmental racism (racial discrimination in environmental policy making and enforcement) continues to impact the health and livelihoods of our most disenfranchised populations.

The goal of FSC® certification is to ensure that products come from responsibly managed forests that provide environmental, social and economic benefits.

• FSC is the only forest certification system that requires consultation with First People groups with the intention of protecting their rights, on both public and private lands.
• With respect to the rights of communities and workers, the FSC standard not only requires forest managers to consult with these local groups, but also to provide fair compensation; protect their health, safety and livelihoods; and allow them to organize under international labor conventions. (Borrowed from FSC Canada)

But environmental racism persists.

According to FSC Canada:

“Currently the forest sector employs 17% women, 9% visible minorities, 7% Indigenous Peoples and 12% immigrants. These figures underline the fact that the forest sector labour force is not keeping up with the social fabric in North America.”

So in the face of continued environmental racism, how can FSC, and we as a supporter of FSC, do our part to reduce that racism?

Back in 2020, our team committed to not just taking this hard look but to also keep learning. We sign up for the The Leader’s Guide to Unconscious Bias book launch with FranklinCovey and continue to participate in the How to Be an Anti-Racist Organization monthly series.

Even though our company is small with limited reach, I still believe we can have an important impact.

2. Work with clients who share these same values.

It’s important to remember that while our industry may seem niche, we work with companies large and small who seek FSC certification to improve their bottom lines.

One way American Green Consulting can live out our values as a company is to refuse to work with brands that are racist or misogynous.

3. Vote—because our future depends on it.

As an employer, I can empower my team members to exercise their right to vote.

I want each of my team members to understand that their voices matter. Fixing racial inequities requires systemic reform across the board, and policy reform is just one of the first ways we can begin to make these needed changes. That can only happen through voting.

Giving my team the incentive to exercise their right to vote creates a company culture that supports individual activism. Individual activism can lead to group activism, and activism of any sort can begin to affect the change we wish to see in our world.

It may not seem, on the surface, that voting is directly connected to fighting systemic racism in the wood industry. However, my hope is that this growth in activism will impact not only their own communities, but also the industry to which they have devoted their professional careers. It’s important to me that each of them feels empowered to affect change by voting in their local, state and national elections.

That’s why, I’ve pledged that our company will always make the time to vote. While it may seem like a small step, making sure each teammate knows their paycheck covers their time to vote is a solid, financial commitment AGC can make to them—and by extension, to the values they wish to uphold.

While it’s true that very few elections have been decided by one vote, I’d like to share two quotes that have impacted my decisions each and every day, plus one statistic regarding voting.

• “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead
• “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” —Mother Teresa
• 40.3% of eligible American voters did not vote in the 2016 presidential election.

Changing society for the better requires having people in positions of power who are interested in affecting change. At AGC, no one has to choose between earning a paycheck and voting, and ripples can continue to be created.

4. Teach the next generations about these values.

As a parent, I can help teach the next generation about the importance of anti-racism and equality.

I play a big role in how my son understands the world, and the responsibility of helping him understand racism and inequality in this world is daunting.

However, it’s a role my wife and I gladly accept, and we know we’ll need plenty of help. We want him to not just experience a world full of natural beauty, but also a humanity where every life matters.

My son is one of our future’s voices after all, with lots of ripples left to make.

5. Keep seeking answers and demand action.

Back in the summer of 2020, we knew we wanted to affect change in our own industry, but we didn’t know where to start. So we sought out ways to learn.

We decided to organize and host the virtual Advocates For Change Symposium, which took place in October 2021.

Our first step (which is an ongoing one) was to seek understanding by learning from those who live in the oppression, and our second step (also repeating) was to share what we learned with those in our industry so we canoutline plans for change.

To get that learning started, AGC reached out to clients (including BIPOC business owners) and other industry professionals to take part in this symposium.

Our goals were to:

• Provide a first-of-its-kind symposium in our industry (that we knew of).
• So that we could honestly and openly discuss how forestry operations can assist in addressing systemic racism in our industry.

What happened afterwards:

• We formally shared our findings and recommendations from this symposium with FSC and other industry influencers.
• We outlined specific changes that we, as a group, expected to see from FSC and laid out action steps at their level and ours.
• We set up expectations for regularly following up with these organizations and each other.

► You can watch the recorded sessions for the Advocates For Change Symposium on our YouTube Channel.